Police academy loses eight since Aug. 3 start

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, September 2, 2009

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Police academy loses eight since Aug. 3 start

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In a little more than a month since the 83rd Session of the Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy has been underway, staff said their enrollment has dropped eight participants leaving the class with only 15 attendees as of Wednesday.

“It’s a little high of a number. Normally, I see about one out of eight people dropping out. Three would have been normal,” Midland police recruiting Sgt. Greg McCright said.

The class — the largest the academy had seen, with 23 enrolled — started Aug. 3. Twelve men were signed up to join the Midland department, while the rest were headed to Lamesa and Big Spring police and fire marshal’s departments.

Of the eight who have already dropped out of the class, one was recruited for the MPD while the others were for the area agencies. The MPD participant was dropped from the academy due to academic reasons, said officials.

Another recruit left for a medical reason with his wife, while a couple of other participants left for their own medical reasons after being hurt in the program.

“It’s a physically demanding academy,” McCright said.

Other new recruits were dropped from the program for failing the academic standards.

The most disappointing was one participant who was dropped from the academy class because he was caught cheating. It was the first time that McCright said he had ever heard of anyone cheating in the program.

“Normally, that would be pretty rare with the hiring process that they go through,” he said adding that “honesty is one of the things that we look at.”

“Obviously in this case, he got more concerned with passing than doing the right thing.”

The department currently is hiring for the new class set to start in February. It has approximately five to six slots for new officers the MPD is hiring for.

Those wanting to apply can contact the recruiting department at MPD at 432-685-7590 for more information.